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Still new but obnoxiously curious about lots of subjects. I don't know of, nor can I find a previous topic on this through the net search. Does anybody know if there is offered an assembly kit for a concertina, versus building one from scratch with plans. I don't know if I have the patience to search out all the parts and raw material to build one, but I might be interested in an assembly and finish type kit similar to the ones for violin, guitar, and banjo available in the US from some woodworking supply places. Thanks in advance for anyones input or suggestions.

Leo

Edited by Leo
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There is a Cajun accordion Kit from Weltmeister (I think).

Ready accordion's price was $800, Kit's price - $600-$700 with no guarantee.

I think we'll see the reasonable kits, if the number of makers will grow and they will start to compete.

So far I think they make more money by making less instruments of higher quality than vice versa.

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About three or four years ago, I went to view a kit system being prepared by a company in Bradford, metal ended 30 k anglos CG. I saw dozen's of kits, all the manufacturing drawings, hundreds of reeds, thousends of arms, springs, bellows kits stacked in a corner, dozens of pads etc. The company (Renaisance Music????) was owned by someone who was taken ill, I believe he took his project, and his life, to Italy for the climate.

 

He was working (I feel sure) in conjuction with Hobgoblin Music. The project was at a stage where I gave specific advice during the visit, and then agreed to build the first kit or two, to derive the working instruction set. Time went by, we made contact to be told of the owner's illness.

 

The kits looked very good, and the instrument more than viable at about £400. These were not toy instrument but first class (if accordion reeded). AH HA --- or may be one of the other repro manufacturers bought them out and destroyed the evidence....... I have just seen 'The Da Vinci Code' film, so I am into deep, dark plots at the moment!!!!!!!

 

Mind you, you need a codex to play a blasted Anglo.

 

Dave

Edited by d.elliott
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About three or four years ago, I went to view a kit system being prepared by a company in Bradford, metal ended 30 k anglos CG. I saw dozen's of kits, all the manufacturing drawings, hundreds of reeds, thousends of arms, springs, bellows kits stacked in a corner, dozens of pads etc.

I saw some of those prototype Anglo kits too, when I went to the Greenwich International Festival of Early Music in 2003.

 

 

The company (Renaisance Music????) was owned by someone who was taken ill, I believe he took his project, and his life, to Italy for the climate.

It was exhibited by the Renaissance Workshop Company Ltd., of Bradford, but it never went into production. I understand the owner moved to Toledo, in Spain.

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The company (Renaisance Music????) was owned by someone who was taken ill, I believe he took his project, and his life, to Italy for the climate.

It was exhibited by the Renaissance Workshop Company Ltd., of Bradford, but it never went into production. I understand the owner moved to Toledo, in Spain.

 

Renaissance Workshop Company in Toledo, Spain

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Which would take longer - concertina or harpsichord?

To build from a kit... or to build a kit? :unsure:

 

Clarification to original post

Would possibly build from a kit. Wish I had the resources to create a kit and offer it for sale, but I don't.

Leo

Edited by Leo
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I've emailed them. Will pass on any reply I get.

 

Chris

 

Thanks: found the website ok, however concertina or even koncertina has a listing but is blanked out with no link behind the word. Lots of instrument kits, but no concertina. Guess I'll have to keep looking an you never know, something will creep up sooner or later to whet my appetite and cure my curiosity.

(can't spiel good)

Edited by Leo
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... concertina or even koncertina has a listing but is blanked out with no link behind the word. Lots of instrument kits, but no concertina.

A search of the site it produces:

 

24th Feb 2003 - The Renaissance Workshop Company - one of a few in the world that specialise in manufacturing early musical instruments - has been asked to develop a traditional English concertina [more]

 

But the link doesn't work. :(

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Well I have had a reply, and here's what they say:-

We have been very busy with the move to Spain. And it is not completely

finished.

 

Our intention is to retake the development of the concertina and other new

kits, but first we need to put the new workshops at standard production

rates and deliver all the accumulated orders.

 

Please, feel free to pass this information.

 

Kind regards

 

Vicente Garrido

Renaissance Workshop Company

So watch this space.

 

Chris

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Well I have had a reply, and here's what they say:-
We have been very busy with the move to Spain. And it is not completely

finished.

 

Our intention is to retake the development of the concertina and other new

kits, but first we need to put the new workshops at standard production

rates and deliver all the accumulated orders.

 

Please, feel free to pass this information.

 

Kind regards

 

Vicente Garrido

Renaissance Workshop Company

So watch this space.

 

Chris

 

Great. Let's hope they live up to their name! Now, what are they going to call their new model? The "Spanglo", perhaps? :rolleyes:

Edited by Chris Drinkwater
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Well I have had a reply, and here's what they say:-

We have been very busy with the move to Spain. And it is not completely

finished.

 

Our intention is to retake the development of the concertina and other new

kits, but first we need to put the new workshops at standard production

rates and deliver all the accumulated orders.

 

Please, feel free to pass this information.

 

Kind regards

 

Vicente Garrido

Renaissance Workshop Company

So watch this space.

 

Chris

 

Great. Let's hope they live up to their name! Now, what are they going to call their new model? The "Spanglo", perhaps? :rolleyes:

 

Thanks all. That's further than I got. Appreciate the information and look forward to see what come of it. For now a curiosity, but like any itch it needs to be scratched to be satisfied.

 

Leo

Edited by Leo
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  • 4 weeks later...

In part because of comments in this Topic, I thought again about the idea of a concertina kit, specifically in comparison with a banjo kit. One difference -- not the only one -- is the issue of tuning.

 

Concertina reeds can only be given their final tuning within the completed instrument. With a concertina kit, that means that the person who puts the instrument together must also delicately adjust the final tuning of each and every reed (40 in a 20-button anglo, 96 in a 48-button English, 110 in a 55-button duet, etc.). They must have both the tools and the competence to do this. (Should a tuning meter be included in the kit? That would increase the cost at least a little.)

 

I don't know how popular banjo and guitar kits really are, nor how many of those that are sold actually wind up being played, but I suspect that the number in both categories would be much less if the kit purchasers were given the fingerboard and the fret wires and they then had to not only cut the slots for the frets themselves, but also work out on their own exactly where to place the frets.

 

More directly relevant statistics would probably be those for currently available accordion kits. How many kits are sold in comparison to finished instruments? And of the kits, what percentage actually reach the status of playable instruments?

Edited by JimLucas
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Are accordion kits really available? Michael mentioned Weltmeister, but I didn't see anything on their site, and I didn't have any luck with a Google search either.

 

More directly relevant statistics would probably be those for currently available accordion kits. How many kits are sold in comparison to finished instruments? And of the kits, what percentage actually reach the status of playable instruments?
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There was a Hohner kit for a 48 bass piano accoridon. Several of them appeared on ebay last year. I suspect that there was not much interest.

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